THANK YOU ALL for your wonderful responses to my post! I always enjoy sharing my experiences and photos with you all and getting your feedback. It sures helps with the winter blues to chat about roses and you are all treasured friends. For those who wanted to know how I went about the seed-starting operation, I kept it pretty simple, and anyone can do it. After collecting the ripe hips in the fall I immediately dug the seeds out of the hips, making sure to get all the pulp off the seeds and clean them well. I soaked them for a day or two in water with a little bit of hydrogen peroxide in it then put them between moist paper towels which I then placed in plastic ziploc bags. They stayed in the refrigerator for 3 months. I did not have any sprout during that time so I simply sowed them in peat pots using packaged sterilized seed starting mix. As for the flourescent lights I used regular shoplights suspended about 3 inches from the pots. I kept the lights on for about 16 hours per day/ off for 8 hrs. I had some germinations in as soon as 1 week after sowing which surprised me, but most seeds took about 2-4 weeks to germinate. As the seedlings grew I just kept adjusting the height of the lights, but made sure they were only inches away from the seedlings. I wasn't sure how well the seedlings would do just using regular flourescent lights but they didn't seem to mind that I didn't splurge on the more expensive grow-lights. Because the set-up was in my basement, the temperature was fairly cool but not cold. So that's basically it, nothing fancy or too scientific, just a lot of hovering over the pots and hoping and wishing. Thank you Patrick & Jim for the suggestion and encouragement to join the RHA. I did pop over there as a lurker during my seed-growing upon occasion but haven't in a while since I no longer have my setup going. Someday I hope to get back into it because I truly enjoyed it. For now, my mom who has Alzheimer's is living with us so that I can care for her and my grown daughter moved back in, and I lost all available space. It's a hobby I know I will get back into when space allows. Once again, many thanks for all of your words of encouragement. Celeste

Tiny baby roses often produce flowers that don't look much like the mature plant's flowers. So if the flowers look a little strange, don't be too concerned. The growers who probably most need to remove buds from tiny plants are those with a short growing season and harsh winters. The baby plants need all the help they can get surviving that. In contrast, Zone 9 has a long growing season and mild winters. One thing, if the roses don't really take off (slow to get growing), removing buds until they do take off can help.

So gorgeous. Another one of my favorite Austins. Fragrance is to die for!

One buff has rooted and the other is just about too! I am so excited. The aphids are driving me crazy! Everywhere..Hurricane Nate is headed this way, so maybe he will blow them away. Gonna get a lot of rain with this one and some strong winds, but nothing like Irma. How are you going to winter over your rooted cuttings? I know it gets colder there in the winter, but what are your plans? I think I am just going to line them up against the house, under the eaves on the west facing side...just let nature take its course. I have an agapanthus that is in a pot, that comes back every year. No protection. (even had sheets of ice dripping from it) I am afraid to put them in the garage because I don't want to over/under water them. Hopefully, when it's time, they will go dormant...